Nursing Home Abuse and Negligence

Court Upholds Arbitration Agreement in Recent Nursing Home Negligence Lawsuit

Published on: November 13, 2017 | by Friedman, Rodman & Frank, P.A.

Earlier this month, an appellate court issued a written opinion in a nursing home case brought by the surviving loved ones of a woman who died while in the care of the defendant nursing home facility. The case presented a hot-button issue in many nursing home cases across the country: the enforceability of an arbitration clause that was contained in a pre-admission contract. Ultimately, the court concluded that the plaintiff was bound by the arbitration clause because the person who signed on the resident’s behalf had the authority to do so, and the clause itself was not contrary to public policy or otherwise unenforceable.

The Facts of the Case

The plaintiff was the daughter of a nursing home resident who died shortly after being admitted to the hospital while she was a resident at the defendant nursing home. The allegations were that the nursing home failed to implement a safety protocol to prevent residents from falling. The evidence presented suggested that the plaintiff’s loved one fell at least twice during her stay, resulting in injuries that worsened and eventually led to her premature death.

Prior to the resident’s admission into the nursing home, one of the resident’s daughters signed a pre-admission contract. That contract had an arbitration clause contained in it, which stated that the parties agreed to submit any claims between the two to binding arbitration, rather than handling them through the court system. At the time, the resident had executed a power of attorney document, granting her daughter power over her affairs “without limitation.”

Punitive Damages in Florida Personal Injury Cases

Published on: October 16, 2017 | by Friedman, Rodman & Frank, P.A.

When someone is injured due to the negligent or intentional conduct of another person, the victim is entitled to file a Florida personal injury claim against the person or people they believe to be responsible for their injuries. If successful, an accident victim can recover compensation for their injuries.Compensation awards in personal injury cases are broken down into different categories. For example, the most common category of personal injury damages is called compensatory damages. Compensatory damages are designed to put the plaintiff back into the position where they were before the accident. Medical expenses, lost wages, and a decrease in one’s quality of life are all categories of compensatory damages. Since these damages are designed to make the plaintiff “whole” again, the focus is on the victim, rather than the conduct of the defendant.

Punitive damages, on the other hand, focus on the defendant’s conduct that resulted in the plaintiff’s injuries. Punitive damages are rare and can be significant – sometimes reaching into the tens of millions of dollars. These damages are designed to deter parties from engaging in the type of conduct that resulted in the plaintiff’s injury. As a result, punitive damages focus on the defendant’s conduct, rather than the injuries suffered by the plaintiff. Punitive damages are rare and generally are not appropriate when mere negligence is alleged. Normally, there must be a showing of intentional conduct or recklessness in order for a court to consider punitive damages.

Nursing Home Claims Privilege in Face of Plaintiff’s Discovery Request

Published on: October 5, 2017 | by Friedman, Rodman & Frank, P.A.

When a South Florida nursing home abuse or neglect case is filed, the parties must exchange certain requested materials before the case is scheduled for trial. This is called the pre-trial discovery process, and it is an opportunity for both sides to learn a little more about the other’s case.In most South Florida personal injury or wrongful death cases filed against a nursing home, the plaintiff will request not just information that he believes will be helpful to his case but also information that could potentially be harmful to his case. The idea is to be prepared for what lies ahead at trial. A recent case illustrates the tactics that some nursing home defendants will attempt in order to prevent the plaintiff from obtaining certain material.

The Facts of the Case

The plaintiff was the father of a mentally ill man who was a resident at the defendant nursing home. While the plaintiff’s son was a resident of the home, he was attacked by another resident with a blunt object and subsequently died from the injuries he sustained in the attack.

Florida Nursing Home Faces Wrongful Death Lawsuit in the Wake of Eight Hurricane Irma Deaths

Published on: September 25, 2017 | by Friedman, Rodman & Frank, P.A.

Earlier this month, Hurricane Irma ripped through South Florida, leaving behind a disaster area in some locations. Hurricane Irma may not have been as bad as some had forecasted, but hundreds of thousands of Floridians were left without power in the wake of the storm. While a power outage may be a minor annoyance to most, outages can be deadly to a nursing home resident who relies on medical equipment.According to a recent news report, one South Florida nursing home is facing at least one lawsuit stemming from the deaths of eight residents following Hurricane Irma. The report details the allegations in the plaintiff’s complaint, which claim that the nursing home’s failure to take adequate precautions to protect residents leading up to the storm showed “negligence and reckless indifference.”

The plaintiff points to several alleged failures on the part of the nursing home, including the home’s failure to secure a generator in the event of a power outage despite ample warning that the facility was likely going to lose power. Indeed, there were reports that the temperature inside the nursing home reached as high as 106 Fahrenheit at times due to the lack of air conditioning.

U.S. Supreme Court Rules in Favor of Nursing Home on Arbitration Issue

Published on: May 22, 2017 | by Friedman, Rodman & Frank, P.A.

Over the past few years, arbitration contracts in nursing homes have been a hot-bed of litigation across the country. Indeed, last year, a federal agency attempted to make it much more difficult for government-funded nursing homes to include arbitration agreements in their pre-admission contracts. However, since then, the nursing home industry has been successful in preventing the ultimate passage and enforcement of that rule.In the most recent development, the United States Supreme Court issued an opinion in a nursing home case siding with the nursing home. In that case, two family members filed wrongful death lawsuits against a nursing home that had cared for two of their loved ones prior to their death. Prior to the residents’ admission into the nursing home, they executed a general power of attorney in favor of the plaintiffs, giving the plaintiffs the ability to “dispose of all matters.”

The plaintiffs later placed their loved ones in the defendant nursing home. However, prior to their loved ones’ admission, the plaintiffs had to complete the pre-admission contract. One clause in that contract agreed to submit any and all claims that may arise between the parties to binding arbitration.

State Court of Appeals Invalidates Nursing Home Arbitration Contract

Published on: April 13, 2017 | by Friedman, Rodman & Frank, P.A.

Late last year, a state court of appeals issued a written opinion in a nursing home negligence case brought by the estate of the deceased resident. The case presented the court with the opportunity to discuss when an arbitration agreement is valid if it is signed by someone other than the resident. Ultimately, the court held that the arbitration agreement signed by the resident’s son was invalid because the power of attorney document the resident had executed did not specify that the resident’s loved one had control over her legal affairs.

The Facts of the Case

The plaintiff in this case was the estate of the deceased nursing home resident. Prior to the resident’s admission into the nursing home, she had executed a power of attorney in favor of her son, who was helping her obtain the long-term care that she needed. In 2005, the resident was admitted into the nursing home after her son signed the pre-admission contract. Several years later, the nursing home presented the resident with a voluntary arbitration agreement, which her son also signed.

In 2012, the resident died, allegedly due to injuries she sustained while at the nursing home. The resident’s estate brought a wrongful death lawsuit against the nursing home. In response, the nursing home asked the court to dismiss the case, citing the voluntary arbitration agreement that the resident’s son had previously signed. The trial court rejected the defendant’s request to arbitrate, claiming that the power of attorney document did not give the resident’s son the right to agree to arbitration, and therefore, the arbitration agreement was invalid. The nursing home appealed.

Florida Appellate Court Invalidates Arbitration Agreement, Rejecting Nursing Home’s Argument

Published on: March 30, 2017 | by Friedman, Rodman & Frank, P.A.

Earlier this month, a Florida appellate court handed down a decision in an interesting nursing home negligence case, requiring the court to determine the validity of an arbitration contract signed by a deceased resident’s daughter. The court ultimately rejected the nursing home’s argument that, since the resident was a third-party beneficiary of the admission contract, the resident should be bound by the contract despite her daughter’s lack of legal authority to enter into the contract on behalf of her mother.

A Daughter Signs a Contract on Behalf of Her Incompetent Mother

The resident’s daughter was helping her incompetent mother find a nursing home. After the daughter settled on the defendant nursing home, she signed an admission contract on behalf of her mother. Part of that admission contract was an arbitration agreement. The arbitration agreement waived the mother’s right to use the court system if anything should happen in the future giving rise to a personal injury or wrongful death claim.

Unfortunately, the resident was injured while at the nursing home and later died from complications related to that injury. The resident’s estate filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the nursing home, arguing that the nursing home was responsible for the resident’s injuries and subsequent death.

State Supreme Court Blocks Trial Judge from Enforcing Ruling Against Wrongful Death Plaintiff

Published on: July 12, 2016 | by Friedman, Rodman & Frank, P.A.

The Supreme Court of Oklahoma recently released a decision granting a plaintiff’s request to prevent the enforcement of an order issued by the judge presiding over a wrongful death case. The initial order had denied the plaintiff’s request to amend their complaint and add additional defendants of whom the plaintiff was initially unaware. Although the state supreme court denied the plaintiff’s request to immediately force the trial judge to grant their motion to amend the complaint, the most recent ruling will result in further proceedings at the district court level to determine if the plaintiff is entitled to hold the additional parties responsible in the wrongful death case.

The Plaintiff’s Claim of Nursing Home Neglect and Wrongful Death

The plaintiff in the case of Maree v. Willow Park Health Care Center is the personal representative of the estate of a woman who died while she was a patient at a long-term nursing facility operated by the defendants. According to the facts discussed in the appellate opinion, the lawsuit alleges that the defendant negligently failed to respond to an assistance call made by the patient, resulting in her suffering injuries in a fall while she attempted to use the bathroom unassisted. The plaintiff’s claim further alleges that the defendants failed to adequately respond after the patient was injured, ultimately resulting in her death two days later. Based on the alleged negligence of the nursing home operators, the plaintiff filed a wrongful death lawsuit seeking damages from the defendant.

The Plaintiff’s Attempt to Pierce the Corporate Veil is Denied

After filing the wrongful death claim, the plaintiff became aware of additional parties who acted as owners/managers of the defendant nursing home corporation and sought to add them as defendants to the case. Although corporate owners and members cannot generally be held personally accountable for negligence committed by the corporation, the plaintiff argued that case discovery would find evidence that the additional defendants were personally involved in the daily operations of the nursing home and could be held personally accountable for their role in the patient’s death. After hearing argument on the plaintiff’s motion, the trial court ruled that the proposed defendants could not be added and denied the plaintiff’s request to conduct additional discovery on the defendants. The plaintiff appealed the ruling to the state supreme court and sought an order blocking the enforcement of the trial court’s order.

Court Rules That Nursing Home Defendant Waived Right to Compel Arbitration

Published on: June 9, 2016 | by Friedman, Rodman & Frank, P.A.

The Supreme Court of South Carolina recently released a decision reversing a lower appellate decision that determined the defendant nursing home maintained their right to compel arbitration of the plaintiff’s wrongful death claim against them, filed on behalf of the plaintiff’s deceased mother. The state supreme court determined that by litigating several issues both before and after the decedent’s passing, the defendant had given up their right to enforce an arbitration agreement signed by the plaintiff when her mother moved into the nursing home.The Plaintiff’s Mother’s Health Declined Quickly after Moving into the Nursing Home

The case of Johnson v. Heritage Healthcare was filed based on the plaintiff’s mother’s quickly deteriorating health and eventual death while living in a nursing home operated by the defendant. According to the facts recited in the supreme court opinion, the plaintiff’s mother was in good health when she moved into the home, but her condition dramatically worsened within six months of moving in. The plaintiff alleged that the defendant’s negligence resulted in her mother’s poor health and eventual death, and she filed a wrongful death lawsuit against them after her mother’s passing.

Prior to the Wrongful Death Lawsuit, the Plaintiff Sought Her Mother’s Medical Records from the Defendant

After her mother’s condition worsened but before her death, the plaintiff filed an action against the defendant, seeking her mother’s medical records to determine why her health had deteriorated so quickly while under the defendant’s care. Although the plaintiff had signed an agreement to pursue claims through arbitration rather than in a state court proceeding, the defendant responded to the plaintiff’s claims in state court. The defendant vehemently resisted the plaintiff’s attempt to access her mother’s medical records, refusing to turn them over after the court ordered that they do so. Until her mother died, the plaintiff was unable to access her medical records in spite of the court’s order compelling the defendant to release them.